


Sharing is Caring

by Settiai



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Campaign 1 (Critical Role), F/M, Friendship, Holly Poly, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Multi, Nightmares, One Shot, Polyamory, Sharing a Bed, Yearlong Break (Critical Role)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-17
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-17 12:55:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28725441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Settiai/pseuds/Settiai
Summary: Little glimpses of a peaceful year.Nothing lasts forever.
Relationships: Percival "Percy" Fredrickstein Von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III/Vex'ahlia, Taryon Darrington & Vex'ahlia, Taryon Darrington/Percival "Percy" Fredrickstein Von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III
Comments: 6
Kudos: 46
Collections: Holly Poly 2020





	Sharing is Caring

**Author's Note:**

  * For [C-chan (1001paperboxes)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/1001paperboxes/gifts).



Taryon hurriedly patted down the protective apron he was wearing. It wasn't actively on fire anymore, just smoking a bit, but he'd learned from past experience that it was better to be safe than sorry.

"Was it supposed to do that?" he asked carefully, glancing over at Percy.

Percy blinked at him a few times, a slightly dazed look on his face as he tried to clean his glasses. Whether it was from the recent explosion or his current lack of corrective lenses wasn't entirely clear, although Tary suspected it might be a little of both. There were two circles of clean skin around his eyes, but the rest of his face was a sooty black color from smoke.

"Yes," Percy said, drawing himself up as haughtily as he could manage while smoking slightly. "It was, in fact, supposed to do that."

Tary couldn't help but shoot him a skeptical look. He wasn't completely naïve, no matter what the others seemed to think sometimes. After months of living in Whitestone, he'd picked up on the fact that sometimes Percy's tinkering didn't always go quite as expected.

And having a set of arrows explode in their faces seemed like it might be one of those times.

The expression on Percy's face turned a bit sheepish after a few seconds, as he clearly realized that Tary hadn't bought his answer. "It was!" he said, although his argument definitely sounded half-hearted by that point. "Just... not until Vex actually used it."

Tary couldn't have stopped the corners of his mouth from turning upwards in a smile even if he'd wanted to. Shaking his head in amusement, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the handkerchief he still kept there more out of habit than anything else.

"Of course," he said. "It definitely sounds like it worked exactly as planned."

It was hard to tell under all the soot, but Tary was fairly certain Percy blushed at that.

"Let's get you cleaned up before Vex comes to find out what exploded this time," he said, walking over towards Percy. "She brought up that fire in your bedroom again at breakfast this morning, so I don't think she's forgotten."

If anything, Percy looked even more sheepish.

Tary reached out and gently started cleaning the ash and soot from Percy's face with the handkerchief, only aware of just how close they were standing when Percy's breathing hitched slightly. It was still new, whatever this thing was that he and Percy and Vex were trying to negotiate, and none of them had quite figured out all the steps yet.

Still, nobody learned how to dance without trying their best and simply pushing through the occasional stumble.

"There," Tary said, looking over Percy's mostly clean face. He knew that he wasn't imagining the slight flush on his cheeks, although he suspected it wasn't from embarrassment. "Much better."

"My hero," Percy said softly, and it was Tary's turn to blush.

Before he could chicken out or say something that would ruin the moment without meaning to, Tary leaned in and kissed him.

*

"I don't know, darling," Vex said, staring at the lopsided monstrosity sitting on the plate in front of them. It was dry and crumbling, barely holding its shape. "That doesn't look very appetizing to me."

Tary rubbed the back of his neck. "What do you think we did wrong?" he asked. "We followed the recipe exactly."

Vex frowned, biting her lip. "Maybe it was the flour," she said slowly. "We weren't entirely sure what that smudged number was and took a guess, remember?"

Tary grimaced. "I'd forgotten about that," he said. "That had to be it." He paused. "Actually, we weren't sure what that word before 'eggs' was either."

"An egg is an egg," Vex said, shrugging. "Whatever that word was, it couldn't have made that much of a difference."

Tary looked pointedly at the plate in front of them. Vex rolled her eyes.

The two of them slipped into silence for a moment, still staring at what was supposed to be a cake. It didn't particularly look very cake-like. Or edible, for that matter.

"So," Vex said slowly, "what should we do with this? It looks like it's going to—"

Without a sound, the cake collapsed in on itself.

Tary flinched. Vex let out an irritated sigh.

"At least nothing's on fire this time?" Tary suggested after a long moment of silence. "That's an improvement over the last time."

Vex turned towards him, her eyebrows going up. "I thought we decided never to bring that up again."

"You told me to never tell _Percy_ ," Tary pointed out. "You didn't say anything about mentioning it to you."

She rolled her eyes, but her mouth twitched so Tary didn't think she was actually irritated.

"Oh, well," she said, pressing a quick kiss against his cheek. "Let's try again, I suppose. Practice makes perfect."

He offered her his arm, and she show him a quicksilver smile before taking it so he could escort her back towards the kitchen.

*

Tary stared out the window, looking up at the cloudy sky. The occasional star was visible from time to time, and he thought he'd caught a glimpse of one of the moons earlier. Still, it was surprisingly dark for a summer night, the storm that had moved through earlier still making its presence known even if the rain had finally stopped.

"Taryon?"

He blinked at the sound of Vex's voice coming from behind him, and he turned around. Vex and Percy were both standing in the doorway to the study. It was hard to make out their faces in the darkness, but he was fairly certain that he'd heard something that sounded a lot like concern in Vex's voice.

Tary reached up and rubbed the back of his neck. "I thought that I was being quiet," he said. "Did I wake the two of you?"

There was a long pause. "No, nothing like that," Percy said, and Tary knew him well enough to hear the embarrassment in his voice. "We, uh, took a late night stroll."

Tary's eyebrows went up. "In the rain?"

He took a few steps forward so that he could see them better. Both of them were drenched, their hair dripping and their clothes plastered to their skin. What little clothes they were wearing, at least. Vex was wearing what looked like a thin white shift while Percy was wearing trousers and a white shirt. Neither of them were wearing shoes, and the soaked nature of their clothes wasn't leaving much at all to the imagination.

It was very obvious that neither of them was wearing anything under said clothes either. Tary's eyebrows went even higher as his mouth twisted into an amused smirk.

"Shut up," Vex said, sounding more amused than embarrassed.

"I didn't say anything," Tary said quickly, raising his hands. "Did you have fun?"

Percy and Vex shared a look, and Tary felt a brief pang in his chest at just how well suited they were for each other. Sometimes he honestly thought they could read each other's minds. As much as he'd come to care for them in the months he'd been staying in Whitestone, there were still times when he couldn't help but feel like an interloper no matter how many times they tried to convince him otherwise.

"We did," Vex said finally, tilting her head a little as she looked back towards Tary. "What about you? It's an odd night to pick up stargazing."

Then again, he apparently knew them well enough to pick up on the question she was clearly asking even without her saying the words.

Tary grimaced. "The storm woke me up," he said, and it wasn't a complete lie. There had been a storm in the nightmare he'd had, and for all he knew the sound of the actual storm going on outside had been what prompted it. "I couldn't fall back to sleep."

Percy and Vex shared another one of those looks, and Tary knew that they hadn't believed him. Or, at the very least, they knew that he wasn't telling them the whole story.

"I'll be fine," he said quickly, before either of them had a chance to say anything else. "I was just about to go back to bed."

It was almost insulting just how skeptical the look Vex was shooting him was.

Vex took a step towards Percy, pressing a quick kiss against his lips. Then she pulled away and, without a word, reached out and shoved him forward. Percy stumbled, and Taryon instinctively grabbed him before he could completely lose his balance.

"Your turn," she said brightly.

Tary blinked.

"Thank you, dear," Percy said, sarcasm practically dripping from his words. "The next time you want me on my knees, you can just ask instead of pushing me."

Vex grinned. "Have fun!" she said cheerfully. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do."

"Well, that rules out absolutely nothing," Tary muttered, the words slipping out before he could stop them.

Percy snorted.

If anything, Vex's grin grew even broader.

*

"It's just a short day trip, Vex," Vex ranted as she paced around the clearing. "What could possibly go wrong, Vex? There's nothing to worry about, Vex. Everything will be _fine_ , Vex." She let out an actual grow. "I swear that I'm going to—"

Tary did his best to ignore Vex as he finished wrapping the bandage around Percy's arm. Vex had been able to stop the worst of the bleeding with a few healing spells, but she hadn't had enough magic to completely undo the damage that the... well, whatever in the Hells the creature that had attacked them had been.

"Do you think she's going to stop anytime soon?" he asked quietly.

Percy flinched as, behind them, there was a loud cracking sound that Tary assumed must have come from Vex kicking or hitting something. He just hoped it wasn't one of her bones that was cracking.

"No," Percy said, his voice just as low. "No, I'm pretty sure I'll be hearing about this one for the next several months at least."

Tary grimaced, but there wasn't really anything he could say that would make the situation better and he knew it. "She's just worried," he finally offered.

Percy gave him a weak smile. "I know."

Tary leaned forward and leaned his forehead against Percy's for a moment. "She wasn't the only one," he said quietly. "Don't do that again."

Then he pulled way, ignoring the startled look on Percy's face as he did.

"Is he going to live?" Vex asked, her voice coming from directly behind him. "If he is, I'm going to kill him."

Tary glanced behind him. "He's all yours," he said, pushing himself to his feet so Vex could take his place kneeling on the ground in front of Percy.

Vex knelt down, staring at Percy for a long moment. In front of her, he squirmed uncomfortably.

Then, without a word, she threw herself at him and kissed him right on the lips. Percy let out a pained grunt as he lost his balance and fell backwards, Vex following him, but it apparently didn't hurt enough for him to actually break the kiss.

Tary's mouth twitched, and he looked away to give them some privacy.

In his mind's eye, he saw the fight happen again in slow motion. A blur of fur and claws. Percy crying out. A spray of blood. It had all happened so fast, and for a moment or two there neither he nor Vex had a clue just how badly Percy had actually been hurt.

It had been terrifying.

Tary sighed and started to step away. Before he could, though, he felt a hand grab his ankle and yank. He let out a startled cry as he fell backwards, hitting the ground hard enough that he was fairly certain his rear was going to be aching sooner rather than later.

"Don't even think about it," Vex said, glaring at him. "I'm not letting either of you out of my sight the rest of the day."

Percy gave him a half-hearted shrug from where he was still sprawled out under Vex.

Tary's mouth twitched.

*

Tary wasn't used to sharing a bed. At least, not for sleeping.

He still wasn't quite certain how he had ended up in Percy and Vex's bed, Percy in the center while he and Vex both curled up on either side of him. One minute, he'd been helping Vex try to comfort Percy in the aftermath of a night terror that had ended in screams loud enough to wake up both of them, and the next thing he knew he'd been nodding and crawling under the covers as Vex told him to stop being silly and just go to bed.

It was nice, now that he had a moment to take it in, curled up with a warm body beside him and the sound of steady breathing nearby. Peaceful. Comforting.

Something he could get used to.

Tary smiled as he closed his eyes. He didn't know exactly what direction he'd been expecting his life to take after meeting Vox Machina, but it hadn't been this. Still, he couldn't complain.

For the first time in a long time, he felt like his life was perfect. He just hoped it lasted.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on Twitter. (https://twitter.com/settiai)


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